There is a rise and fall, ebb and flow, punctuation and parenthesis to each day that is sacred, intentional, good.  But I must admit, it is the rise and flow and punctuation that I desire more than the fall, ebb, and parenthesis.

Which means that I often do all I can to avoid it, fill it in, escape it.  

Turns out I am not alone.

Research suggests that people prefer pain…to boredom.  Is there anything we have tried harder to eradicate in the 21st Century?  We value productivity, activity-laden leisure, hustle and bustle efficiency.  We know this is a high value, because people describe their busyness as a badge of honor.

When was the last time someone you knew went on and on about how bored they were last week?  (Okay…other than your child?) What we hear about is how busy they were.  Ad nauseam.

When was the last time you scanned a crowd, or check out line, and saw people just standing there, staring into space, and not into their phones?

And yet…maybe boredom is part of the rhythm of what makes our lives so rich.  

Did you know that there are entire conferences that gather people to consider what it means to be bored?  There is the International Interdisciplinary Boredom Conference.  I kid you not.  And it’s not the only one.  There is also the—get this—Boring Conference.  Try promoting that one.

“Where are you going this weekend?” 

“Oh, I’m going to that Boring Conference…”

There is a whole area of research focused on this one thing, this one thing that we go to such great lengths and expense to avoid.

And what we are discovering is that boredom is how things work.  Just as daily eating and working and playing are vital to our well being and success, so is daily boredom.

I have discovered this in the pool.  Because my body doesn’t allow me to run or bike for any length of time anymore, I’ve taken to swimming laps.  Which is great.  Except…you can’t listen to a podcast while you’re swimming…or enjoy the scenery…or do anything other than stare at the black line as you go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Of course, my mind was still occupied by which lap I was on: one, two, three, wait, was that three, or four, or still two? Dang.  Five, six, seven, wait, was that…

And then my wife got me the best gift ever: boredom.  Actually, it was a bead counter.  But with the counter keeping track of my laps, I could let my mind wander.  Suddenly, I could allow myself to be bored again.

And here is what happens next: the creative impulse in me comes to life.  I make connections I wouldn’t have otherwise made.  I figure things out I couldn’t figure out before.  I get bursts of inspiration that come in no other way than out of boredom. Sitting on my couch and staring out the window produces the same effect, or standing in a very long line.

This is what we are discovering—or recovering—through research and study: Boredom unleashes our creativity and inspiration in ways that nothing else can.

Boredom, the occasional result of the ebb and downtime and slowness of our day, is just as important to our productivity and thriving as is the busyness and bustle and breakneck speed of our day.  This is how writing works: it is both the pauses of the comma and period, as well as the participles and verbs, that create meaning in the manuscript.  This is how music works: it is both the notes and the rests that make the ballad.

Maybe our days are meant to have rhythms.  Maybe busyness is not the virtue it has been sold to us to be.  Maybe the silence and stillness and spaces are not something we need to be rescued from, but rather restored to.

Maybe our earbuds and iPads and jammed calendars are stealing our rests and periods, our commas and meter, our ability to story and sing.

Maybe it’s okay to sit there and stare out the window, if only for just a little longer…